A kindergarten in China got a pole dancer to perform for kids on their first day back at school

Michael Standaert/TwitterA pole dancer performs on the first day of school at a kindergarten in Shenzhen, China, in September 2018.

Kindergarteners in Shenzhen, China, were given a pole dancing performance on their first day back to school on Monday.

A parent posted videos of the performance, which went viral on social media.

The kindergarten later apologized to the parents, saying the show was meant to “expose the children to a wider range of dances.”

The local district education bureau has launched an investigation into the school and ordered its director to be fired.

Children and parents at a kindergarten in Shenzhen, China, were given a shock on their first day at school on Monday when they were welcomed back with a pole dancing performance.

Videos of the performance at Xinshashui Kindergarten, taken by Bloomberg journalist Michael Standaert, went viral on Twitter and Weibo, China’s microblogging platform. Standaert witnessed the performance while taking his children to the school.

They show a woman in a black crop top and short shorts dancing on a flagpole bearing the Chinese flag to the Pussycat Dolls song, “Buttons,” while dozens of adults and children look on.

A woman can be seen taking a small boy away from the crowd in one of the videos.

Watch them below:

So before our kids got out of kindergarten for the summer, there was 10 days of military "activities" and displays of machine guns and mortars at the door; now the principal has welcomed them back with a strip pole dance on the flagpole bearing the PRC flag. She's gone nuts. pic.twitter.com/BJr4UI6Oq3

Who would think this is a good idea? We're trying to pull the kids out of the school and get our tuition back. They wouldn't give us the number of the company that owns the school, but looking into that. pic.twitter.com/vEdIhuq774

The back-to-school performance also featured a burlesque performance by a second dancer, Reuters reported. Standaert added that there were multiple adverts for a pole dancing school outside the school.

The journalist said that he and his wife were now trying to pull their children out of the school and get their tuition back.

Standaert also told That’s magazine, an English-language lifestyle magazine in China: “Pole dancing, that’s fine, if you want to do it as exercise I have no problem with that. But bringing it into a kindergarten? I just don’t understand.”

The school later told parents in an apology letter that the performance was organized to “expose the children to a wider range of dances.”

It said in the letter, provided by Standaert to That’s magazine: “At the opening ceremony of our kindergarten, we arranged many programs, with the intention to not only make the performances different and unconventional, but also expose the children to a wider range of dances, hence the introduction of pole dancing.”

“After today, the children will not again be introduced to forms of dance that parents do not accept and do not recognize,” it added. “Parents, please don’t feel too nervous, as there is no pole dancing involved in our course curriculum.”

The principal hung up on my wife when she called after saying it was "international and good exercise" … okay, yeah for adults maybe, but not 3-6 year old kids. pic.twitter.com/OAw8S5ihzX

The local Baoan district educational bureau also said in a Monday statement that it had launched an investigation into the kindergarten and asked for the dismissal of the school’s principal.

It wrote on Weibo: “The bureau believes that it is not appropriate to perform pole dancing for children in kindergartens.”

Xinshashui Kindergarten has appeared to put on unconventional performances in the past. In the ten days before the summer vacation this year, the school was decorated with military displays for ten days, with machine guns and mortars shown near its entrance, Standaert said.